A one-step synthesized acridine-based fluorescent chemosensor for selective detection of copper( ii ) ions and living cell imaging

Herein, the easily approachable N , N ′-(acridine-3,6-diyl)dipicolinamide ( ACC ) prepared by only one step was evaluated as an efficient and selective chemosensor for the selective detection of copper ions (Cu 2+ ). The fluorescence sensing behavior of ACC toward metal cations was investigated in an HEPES buffer aqueous solution. The fluorescence emission was significantly quenched in the presence of Cu 2+ cations, whereas other metal cations showed a low interference. The limit of detection was found to be 1.2 × 10 −7 M. The recognizing mechanism of ACC towards Cu 2+ has been investigated by 1 H NMR, HR-MS analysis, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Moreover, this sensor was verified to have low cytotoxicity and good imaging characteristics for Cu 2+ in living cells; this suggested that ACC was a potential probe for the detection of Cu 2+ in vivo .